The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders perform “Thunderstruck” during their final tour stop at the Abraham Chavez Theatre in El Paso. Gaby Velasquez/ El Paso Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader shares secret behind 'Boot Buddies' tradition

Originally posted on Dallas Cowboys on SI
By Josh Sanchez | Last updated Jul 16, 2025 1:09 PM ET

The Dallas Cowboys are the most iconic and valuable brand in the NFL, dubbed "America's Team." Being a part of the organization comes with a lot of prestige.

Especially when you are a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, also known as "America's Sweethearts." Like the Cowboys, the DCCs are one of the most recognizable brands in all of sports with their eye-catching uniforms and signature boots.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are so popular that they just wrapped up season 2 of their Netflix docuseries America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which tells the stories of those fighting to make the team.

While there is so much publicity and attention on the football and cheerleading teams, there is one lesser-known tradition for the cheerleaders, "Boot Buddies."

Recently, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Kleine Powell pulled back the curtain on the "boot buddies" tradition in a video on TikTok, explaining the concept.

"So I got a couple questions last night because we got Boot Buddies, and so a lot of people were asking, 'What the heck is a Boot Buddy?' " she said in the video, as transcribed by PEOPLE. "So a Boot Buddy is basically the DCC version of a sorority Big-Little."

Initially, a cheerleader's buddy is a secret, with little gifts throughout the audition process end up leading to the big reveal.

"Before practice, we got to set out little gifts that we had made and write notes with clues in them to see if they could try and guess who we are before we did the whole reveal," she said. "So I thought I'd be sneaky and take a secret little video of my boot buddies... which they saw immediately."

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders 'Boot Buddies' tradition pic.twitter.com/Ctu7Ir1apN
— Athlete TikTok (@AthleteTikToks) July 16, 2025

So, there you have it. Every veteran on the squad gets a "boot buddy" that they can help mentor throughout the process and service as their confidant.

As we've seen with reveals during the trend on TikTok, it's a special moment for everyone involved.

This article first appeared on Dallas Cowboys on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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